Parent Problems Put AnnuityNet in Play

Critics seem to have focused on concerns about Ebix businesses in India, not the North American life and annuity distribution tech operations.

The businesses: In addition to AnnuityNet, the Ebix North American life and annuity assets include LifeSpeed, a life insurance distribution tech business; WinFlex, a product performance illustration tool; TPP, an insurance policy underwriting system; and SmartOffice, a customer relationship management system for agents and advisors.

AnnuityNet helps 57 insurers distribute 2,400 products, and LifeSpeed helps about 100 insurers take in 1.3 million applications per year and process $50 billion in life insurance premium payments, according to a document filed with the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the North District of Texas.

The market: AnnuityNet and LifeSpeed compete with Roper Technologies’ iPipeline system and Insurance Technologies’ Firelight system.

The three companies must connect with complicated, highly secure, highly regulated entities such as the Depository Trust & Clearing Corp.’s Insurance and Retirement Services system.

Roper Technologies acquired iPipeline in 2019 from a private equity firm for $1.6 billion, at a time when iPipeline had $200 million in revenue.

Robin Raina, Ebix’s CEO, told securities analysts during a conference call that he believed that AnnuityNet’s revenue had a higher value because AnnuityNet gets more of its revenue in the form of recurring payments, rather than onetime payments.

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